미 국무성 주관 National Security Language Initiative for Youth 프로그램 연구

A study of participants of a Korean immersion program: Focusing on participants of National Security of Language Initiative for Youth in the US

This research examined how Korean language learners, specifically American teenagers in a language immersion program called NSLI-Y, learned Korean language and culture in Korea. There was a field research to investigate the participants’ motivation and interest in the Korean language and culture and how they interacted with local people in a target language community. It was mainly conducted by survey of 66 participants from the NSLI-Y program. Participants, who grew up and lived in ethnically and culturally diverse societies, self reported that they had a growing interest in Korean culture which sparked their interest in learning Korean language. However, there are something to be desired to have more interaction with local Korean people. Also, participants asked for more hands-on experiences in order to use Korean more. Korean immersion programs in the future should be designed in regard with better understanding of participants’ needs in these programs and how they interact with people in Korea.